The first step to knowing what you really want out of life is to ask yourself the right questions. By asking the right questions, you will find answers that you may not have known were there. In all honesty, finding out what’s really going on in our heart and minds is no easy task. It requires patience and time, but it can be done.

So what qualifies as the right question? The right question is any question that will get you thinking in a direction that you may not have thought before. It’s a question that speaks to the deepest part of your desires in life. The right questions will always get you closer to some type of truth about yourself.

There are many sources in the self help world that can provide anyone with instructions on how to ask themselves important questions. These sources are also helpful in guiding you to the next step after you have learned what you really want in life. To get you started, I have compiled a list of questions that may put you on the right path.

If you knew you could not fail. What would you do?

If I gave you 10 Billion dollars, what would you do tomorrow?

What amount of money is enough to make you comfortable?

What would you spend it on?

Is that really necessary for you to be happy?

What amount really makes sense?

4. What 5 things are most important to you in life?

5. What 5 things can’t you live without?

6. What do you want to be remembered by?

7. What do you want to do or accomplish before you leave this earth?

8. What are you most afraid of in life?

By honestly answering these questions for yourself, you will have a framework of information to help determine what makes you happy as well as what you want out of life.

Often when I tell people that I am a trader, I get one of two responses. “Wow isn’t that risky” or “That sounds nice, but I could never do that”. Because of all the negative news that has surrounded the market in the last century, people have become very pessimistic about one of the oldest professions in human history. Trading is really just buying something of value before everyone else knows about it and then selling it when it becomes common knowledge.

The risk that most people see in trading is the same risk they take everyday going to work and expecting a paycheck. You are trading time for money, and at some point your time becomes more valuable and the highest bidder for your time takes you from your boss before he realizes it. Or the opposite becomes true and your time looses value and your boss trades you for someone else.

I spend most of my time learning the value of things and the patterns that surround it, similar to the way you may notice sweaters go on sale in summer and then increase in value in winter, or how the price of airline tickets increase as vacation season approaches. Now imagine if you could buy airline tickets at the cheapest time of the year and then profit from those tickets right before summer break, how much risk did you really take? And what if I told you that you could always return them back to the airline for a predetermined value? Then virtually all your risk could be calculated ahead of time with a high probability of reward.

Using this airline scenario, if you bought tickets in winter for 100 dollars that had a 60 dollars guaranteed refund policy and sold them in summer for 400 dollars, you would have tripled your investment with only a 40 dollar risk. This would create a healthy risk reward ratio or return on investment(ROI). With a ROI that good, How many tickets would you have to buy and sell a year to make more than you make on your current job? 200 tickets? maybe 300?

Now take this concept and apply it to the stock market and instead of tickets you buy a share of the airline for 50 dollar and sell it 3 months later for 70 dollars with a loss limit of 45 dollars. That’s still the same ROI, but now you can do this 4 times a year. Now how many shares would you need to trade to replace your current job? 1000 shares? maybe 1500? It really then becomes just a numbers game.

What I love the most about trading is that it’s not rocket science, so anybody can learn it. It’s a professional skill that usually costs less than a 4 year degree and anyone with time and patience can do it. Notice I didn’t say with money. If you learn to find value of things ahead of the people who don’t , there will always be someone willing to hire you to help them manage their money until you have enough to manage your own.

Trading is simple but not easy, but then again most things in life follow that same rule.

Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd where my introduction to investing and trading. I was 15 when I first saw the movie Trading Places and I was amazed and excited about the idea that someone could make millions of dollars in a matter of minutes if they were smart enough. But no matter how hard I tried, no one could tell me exactly how Louis and Billy Ray Valentine actually made money.

It wasn’t until my junior year in college that I eventually found out the answer. I Googled it and someone had put up a detailed description of how the money exchanged hands from the Dukes to Louis and Billy. I was in awe of the simplicity and complexity of the market and became hooked ever since.

In the world of investing no one is going to ever give you all the answers. But the answers are available. The best thing to ever happen to the little guy in the investment world is the invention of the internet. Everything that you have a question about can be answered with just a little research and then the courage to test it out. If you can find the courage to start the journey of learning how you can make your money make money, I will be here as a source of experience and personal support to guide you through that journey.

There are many times in our lives when we over think a problem. We try to put our own beliefs into what we think the solution should be. That’s why I love this quote from one of the smartest men in history. He figured out things that many people before him could not all because he stuck to the facts and his instinct.

If Einstein could discover things that didn’t exist using deduction and reasoning with facts, how much easier should it be for us to discover things that already exist. For example, the proper steps to take to become wealthy, the proper way to handle an argument or how do I find my purpose in life are all questions that have been answered by someone.

There is really no reason for us to be in the dark about things that we can learn when ever we want to.

We should start looking for what is and use that information to help us move towards what we think should be.